Colonial Life Insurance Review

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Colonial Life has a long history and a great deal of experience, as they have been selling accidental death insurance for more than 75 years. A big company with a large sales force, Colonial offers a range of life, accident, and illness products, offered as voluntary workplace policies.

Colonial Life Summary

Colonial Life was founded in 1937 as a Mutual Accident Company in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1939, the company made the name change to Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company. In 1955, Colonial Life introduced the option to have voluntary benefit premiums deducted through payroll systems.

Colonial Life was purchased by a major disability insurance company, Unum, in 1993 and became a wholly owned subsidiary. The company’s headquarters remains in Columbia.

Today, Colonial offers a variety of life insurance products as well as accident, disability, cancer care, hospital confinement, and even dental coverage products. These are sold to employees through a network of independent agents as optional coverage. Employees can then elect to have their premiums deducted pre-tax through payroll.

Insurance Products

Colonial Life provides little in the way of details about their individual products on their website. Since the majority of their business goes through companies offering voluntary benefits to their employees, plan details are worked out with each individual company to suit the coverage needs of that business.

Colonial Life’s products include:

Life Insurance – which can be purchased as main coverage or as supplemental coverage for a personal insurance policy or employer-provided policy.

Accident Insurance – which provides added coverage for costs associated with an accident that aren’t covered by health insurance, such as ambulance fees.

Cancer Care – a policy designed to help with the costs that are incurred during the treatment of cancer. This includes things like lost wages, childcare costs, transportation and lodging, and even health insurance co-pays.

Critical Illness – which provides a lump sum payment when the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical illness (such as heart attacks, renal failure, or stroke) and can be used to pay for any associated costs.

Disability Insurance – which helps to cover lost wages as well as multiple other related costs when the policyholder is unable to work due to a disability.

Hospital Confinement – a policy that covers excess costs associated with a hospital stay that aren’t covered by health insurance. This includes co-pays, tests, and doctor visits.

Many of Colonial Life’s products are designed to provide supplemental coverage, paying for the costs that are often not covered by standard health insurance. Some products also include wellness benefits that pay for preventative care.

Colonial also writes group benefit plans for companies ranging from small to mid-sized.

Colonial Life Rates

Colonial Life does not offer online quoting, and products are tailored to each business and its particular needs. As a result, we are unable to offer a comparison between Colonial Life and other companies offering similar products.

One of the money-saving benefits of Colonial Life is that they can, in many cases, deduct premiums directly from payroll, pre-tax.

Claims

Colonial Life provides both online claims filing and access to downloadable claims forms. Printed claims forms can be filled out and returned either by mail or by fax. There is also a toll-free policyholder customer service line for claims assistance, 800 325 4368, Spanish speaking agents are also available during business hours.

The Colonial Life website offers a customer portal where policyholders can log in to manage accounts, as well as follow up on the progress of a claim.

The website also offers a series of tips on how to file a claim, with specifics for each type of insurance product.

Since the type of policy sold by Colonial Life can differ, processing times can vary. In addition, the requirements for filing may also differ depending on the product and the type of claim.

Consumer Research and Complaints

Colonial Life & Accident Company is not BBB accredited, and does not have its own rating anymore due to the BBB’s new aggregate system. This system lumps Colonial Life in with its parent company, Unum, making it very difficult to determine which complaints pertain directly to Colonial.

Unum does have an A- rating with the BBB, with 79 complaints in the past three years, 34 of which were closed in the last 12 months. Again, it’s difficult to say how much of that rating is related to Colonial and how much to other Unum companies.

ConsumerAffairs.com has a total of 74 reviews, 73 of which left ratings. Of those, 62 were negative, one-star reviews. Only 6 were five-stars. These reviews contain repeated complaints of slow benefits payouts, slow claims response and processing overall, and of claims being denied for reasons with which the policyholder disagreed.

Similar complaints exist on various other review sites across the internet, covering the same issues.

The volume of complaints, along with the repeated comments outlining similar problems in which Colonial appears to find loopholes to get out of paying out on policies, are both red flags.

Financial Strength

Rating Company

Grade

Financial Outlook

AM Best

A-

Stable

Fitch

A

Strong

S&P

A

Stable

Bottom Line

Colonial Life has been in business for a long time and is a subsidiarity of a Fortune 500 company, however this doesn’t make for guarantees of good service or easy claims handling, as the company’s reviews would imply.

Since Colonial is generally offered through employers as payroll-deducted voluntary benefits, employees may feel they do not have other options for this sort of coverage, but it’s a good idea to take the time to shop around for individual coverage, even if it’s not payroll deducted, before purchasing employer-offered benefits. It’s likely that most people will be able to find similar, affordable coverage elsewhere by comparison shopping. While payroll-deducted benefits are convenient, it’s more important to be confident in the company offering the coverage, particularly with this type of policy.

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Review Information

Summary

Reviewer

Eric Stauffer

Review Date

2017-07-05

Reviewed

Colonial Life

Author Rating

2

About Eric Stauffer

I am a former insurance agent and banker turned consumer advocate. My priority is to help educate individuals and families about the different types of insurance they need, and assist them in finding the best place to get it.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Every year since 2009 my husband and I have received the wellness and cancer checks and my son has most years. Colonial has paid within the 10-14 days; for a dog bite (2012), knee ACL (2016), laceration (2017), shoulder check (2017), knee LCL (2017), and Back (2017-18). In all of this I have spoken to maybe 5 that weren’t helpful or nice and I left negative reviews in the survey at the end of the call.

I had a horrible experience with Colonial Life insurance or benefits. I was very specific about what I wanted and I told the rep there is no need for flirting and she insisted on a lot of things that I wasn’t interested in. Her name was [Redacted]. I won’t say the whole last name. To my surprise she signed me up for those things anyway. And without my final authorization or signature, she insisted she had my best interests in her heart and I have nothing to worry about. She signed me up for everything I found out after a while when I looked closer attention to what was being deducted she insisted that my son was gonna break his leg she insisted I was gonna have a heart attack and I did not physically sign approving anything she conned me in to simply trusting her. I went to the insurance and I was able to talk to somebody that seemed to be an important person and assured me that he would get things taken care of and refund me the money. This lady also told me she was a physician who was able to prescribe medicine and given me some medication to help me save money because it was a very expensive medication she said she can get it cheaper because of who she was. (I found out later she was in medical field but could not legally do that) Immediately after that, it was like I scratch your back you scratch mine she had an emergency and asked me for money, not a lot of money she showed me and proved to me that she was getting a big bonus check from her work. I felt a little-obligated cause she helped me about a month later when the money was due back I did not see a penny she then asked me if I would buy her a Mercedes. I knew now what I was dealing with somebody that was crazy. I still need to take this lady to court to get the money that I had lent her meanwhile she is threatening to spread rumors of me being a junkie and threatening my employment. Now this is still somebody representing Colonial life insurance. Again after realizing that she had signed me up for as much as she could to benefit her own bonus. After I saw this I brought it to her attention that she did what I did not want her to do and she replied Oh well let’s fix it what would you like me to remove. I told her no you don’t understand I want my money and I want my policy canceled and all of my money returned you are an absolute crook. She then threatens to call the police on me for harassment. I told this horrible story to her boss or who she answers to. He assured me that this is not the way they do business and that they would make things right with me. I just recently received a check for a 100 and something dollars and I asked for all of it back which I think was closer to 4 or 5 hundred. I was told initially that things would be made right and instead they gave me the lowest amount back. Then explained to me that she doesn’t actually work for them, she is self-employed and they cannot be responsible for her activities. I have emailed this person back telling him I’m not happy with not getting all my money back again remember I haven’t signed a thing. This gentleman that I talked to was very nice and I felt so assured that he was going to make things right with me. It never happened. If there happens to be a check in the mail I apologize for this message but it has been several months and if this is the way it’s gonna end I would urge everybody go the other way avoid this company. I believe in the golden rule and I believe in integrity and trust and if this is the way things are left with me I cannot say that this company has any of those qualities of life I’m sorry to say.

We had a rep for Colonial Life just leave our office. [Redacted] was very unprofessional. First, she lied and said (name of owner) called her last month to set up a meeting to go over supplemental benefits for our Company. We informed her that (name of owner) has been deceased since 2014. Then she back tracks and says that is when she started working for Colonial Life and it must of been back then (name of owner) told her to check in with us from time to time. Second lie. Even tho he died in 2014, he was basically a silent owner since 2010. She stammered and we told her that we were not interested. Then, she accuses us of not caring for our employees, that if people who work at McDonald’s could afford their coverage than we could too!! Very disrespectful. If we were on the fence about Colonial Life, she surely gave us a push over to the side of we will never ever ever go with them for our insurance needs.

I dealt with Colonial some years ago. I tried everything I could to get them to pay a claim and tried to sue them. Only thing is I could not find an attorney to take them on. Several attorneys told me that this company just throws so much paper at the attorney firms that the payout for short-term disability is eaten up in attorney fees and they can make no money suing them. They do not fall under the Department of Insurance because it is a short-term disability instead of long-term. So they are free to do whatever they want. I wrote my Congressman with no help. Finally, they went too far and accused me of forgery of the doctor’s documents and the Department of Insurance did step in to help and they paid my claim. I just never gave up. But it was a full-time job almost for about six months to get my money. Rip off experts is what they are.

I have been a Colonial Rep for 33 years and it has been my experience to tell ee’s to contact me in the event of a problem.
When an ee signs up for a Colonial program, get the reps info. All of my insured’s get my business card with contact info on it.
Claims that were originally denied have been reopened and resolved.
Sometimes it takes a little extra effort form the person who sold the insurance.

Wow I work for the company and if i had read these reviews first i wouldn’t have joined them. I will say to all you scoffers and anti-colonial life people. Sounds like to me they hired some half wits with very little knowledge and not a very good work ethic. The complaints are individual reps for the company the reps are the ones creating a bad name for Colonial. So maybe they should change their criteria when deciding on a potential candidate for a contract. Anyone can sell , well not anyone but if you’re not going to service what you sell and do your job right then find something else to do. And for anyone not satisfied call the 1800 number and speak to a csr at the home office and ask for another rep in your area.

I was a approached by Colonial Life to offer their Voluntary Benefits to my employees. Based on several negative reviews I’ve read, they don’t seem to be an insurance company with integrity. The last thing I want are for my employees to be unhappy with the volunteer insurance provider I make available to them.

If they are not recommended, then what insurance carriers are recommended and have a good track record of client satisfaction?

I would not recommend this company for life insurance for my pet. All there insurance rep has done is lie to my family since we signed up with the company. They are trying not to pay my grandmother’s life insurance, she has no pre-existing diagnosis, and she just so happen passed away from stage 4 cancer, that we did not know she had because her drs did not diagnosis her properly. They have been giving my family the run around, and it’s sad that in a time of grief an insurance company does not even care enough to do what they promise. We paid her insurance policy up for a year, so they received their money honestly and they can not even treat us in a proper way. I am very very very disappointed, I will be contacting the better business bureau as well as the department of insurance, to file an official complaint. I do not understand why they are still in business, they must be shut down.

If her cancer was determined to be a pre-existing condition, and within the first 2 yrs. of the policy issue date, the claim can be rightly denied, with all premiums paid returned. So sorry, but it’s not the insurance Co. fault.

Colonial Life is terrible. I bought through work a short term disability policy. Recently I got hurt at work and I inquired if this is covered and they said no, I checked my policy and they were correct. The agent told me they try to steer people away from buying short term disability for workplace injuries (???because they have to pay???). I called today to add ST disability for injuries at work and they told me no, because I don’t get it deducted at work from payroll, and almost everybody else there switched to AFLEC so I’m the stray thinking Colonial was worth staying with? They will not sell me a policy to add ST disability for work related accidents, even though their agents came to my place of employment and I bought it there. HUH???
Also I was told it would take 2 days to let me know if I can have my overpayment back, they never got back to me.

This company’s representative is dishonest. One of their represetnative [Redacted] came to our office to sell their products. When she was asked if her company was offering us a special rate because we are as needed employees, she replied yes. She also stated that this is a “Group Rate” and that we would not find similar rates in the market. After I talked to her, I asked my co-worker who asked the same question to the other representative who came with her. His answer is no. She could not even be honest about “rates”, what else is there to trust for this company.

I signed up for a life insurance and cancer protection plan three years ago.. My experience with this company is the same as every other forum I have found via internet…. No One is happy with colonial life… endless complaints that they claim to never received faxes, mail or any documents to process claims. Endless run around for needed information to process claims. Web site isn’t helpful or updated often enough to keep track of claim status.. Horrible company and I too will do what I read that other unhappy customers of colonial life are doing… every time there is an opportunity to post my opinion of them I will let others know that this is not a good company to help protect your family. They are nothing but a misleading insurance scam that just hasn’t been shut down yet.